Seides: Bet with Buffett began from a cold letter in 2007
Ted Seides · The Bet with Buffett (Capital Allocators, EP.05) · May 2, 2017 · at 10:58
Ted Seides, former co-CIO of Protégé Partners, details the origins of his famous 10-year $1 million wager against Warren Buffett pitting hedge funds against the S&P 500.
0:00 / 0:32exact quote · 32.1s
720p mp4 · rendered on demand · StarZero watermark
“So I wrote him a letter, like, you know, figure, write an old fashioned guy, an old fashioned letter. I'd never met him before. I made the letter, I think, cutesy enough that I thought he would respond. And I had heard that he was just legendary in how he responds to communications. And that certainly was the case. And so I got a chicken scratch note back, and that started a back and forth kind of letter communications, which I still have. It's not public, but it's really entertaining. And one thing led to another, and after a while we sort of hacked out the terms of this bet.”
quote is from the automated transcript, cleaned for reading: filler sounds and stutters are removed, nothing is rephrased. names can be misheard (the analysis reads context, assessments check outside sources). how →
More from Ted Seides
Seides: Believed Buffett was 'the patsy' for picking the S&P 500
“I thought Warren was the patsy at the poker table, because he threw out the S&P as the index. I thought that was the wrong index to be picking, and it was something that was going to be an easy hurdle to overcome.”
Seides: Many Private Equity Firms Have Already Raised Their Last Fund
“There are a lot of private equity firms out there today who don't realize they've already raised their last fund.”
NAV Loan Dividend Recaps Are a Gimmick to Juice IRR
“The dividend recap of a private equity portfolio seems like a gimmick to juice distributions and IRR so the GP can ask for a commitment to its next fund. In fact, NAV lenders are pitching this concept to GPs as part of the value proposition for accepting a loa…”
NAV Loans Signal the End of the Private Equity Boom
“NAV loans strike me as a canary in the coal mine signaling the end of the private equity boom.”
NAV Loans Resemble Pre-2008 Subprime AAA CDO Tranches
“In many ways, NAV loans resembled the AAA tranches of subprime CDOs 15 years ago.”
Swensen: Private Equity Fee Burden Almost Guarantees Disappointing Returns
“He said, while illiquid markets provide a much greater range of mispriced assets, private investors fare little better than their marketable security counterparts, as the extraordinary fee burden typical of private equity funds almost guarantees delivery of di…”